Alliance for the Wild Rockies v. James

Three environmental organizations filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of Montana challenging the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) authorizations of grazing in the Grasshopper Watershed in Montana. The plaintiffs asserted that BLM and other federal defendants violated NEPA, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act, including by failing to take a hard look at the project’s climate impacts. In particular, the complaint alleged that BLM did not analyze how climate change has affected baseline conditions and “resource issues” such as sage grouse and sage grouse habitat. In addition, the complaint alleged that BLM disregarded the project’s negative impacts on greenhouse gas emissions while focusing on the project’s benefits to greenhouse gas sequestration and also excluded climate change from its discussion of cumulative effects analysis.